Abstract
Chemotherapy is a widely used technique for virus elimination in crop plants. However, phytotoxicity of the applied antiviral drugs may encumber maintainance of sensible grape plantlets on different sanitation media. We tested the virus eradication efficacy of ribavirin (RBV) on arabis mosaic virus (ArMV) infected Vitis vinifera ‘Csókaszőlő’ in-vitro shoot cultures. Due to the phytotoxicity of RBV, pre-rooted 1 cm long shoot tips were placed on 25 mg/l RBV containing medium. The application of pre-rooted shoots instead of unrooted shoot segments promoted plant development and increased the reliability of ArMV removal. An effective method for rooting of ‘Csókaszőlő’ shoot tips was developed as well.